Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (53 page)

“W
hat else can I do?” he ask
s
while he threads
his hands
pensively through his blond hair
.

“You can promise me that you won’t tell Reed a
nything about this,” I counter
.

“By
‘
t
his
’
you mean
‘
us
?
’
” Xavier asks
, his brows coming together in frustration.

“Fine—
u
s,” I state
with equal frustration.

“No,” he states
emphatically.

“No?” I retort as my breathing increases
.

“No, I won
’t promise you that,” he replies
. “He needs to know.”

A voice
from behind Xavier interrupts
my thoughts.
“Xavier…you told her?” Tau asks with
his eyes fixed on me
. He’s dressed warmly in a seama
n’s coat with a knit cap covering his auburn hair. Beside him, Cole is
similarly attired as he scans
Xavier’s dripping wet form in front of me.

“Yes,” Xavier affirms
with a single nod
. He drops
his hands to his sides
when he sees
Cole standing beside Tau on the cold deck.

My eyebrows dra
w together in a scowl. “We’ve just been chatting. Anything else you guys want to t
ell me?” I ask
them all with sarcasm dripping from my voice. “You’re not my mo
ther, are you Cole?”

A wide grin form
s
on his mouth
before he
laughs
.
“No, Evie,”
he says,
shaking his dark head.
“I’m not your mother. But, we’
ve been friends for a very long time.”

Tau frowns
,
“I thought we agreed to wait until af
ter we dealt with the Gancanagh.
”
His gray eyes bore
into Xavier’s
.

“She pressed the issue. S
he tried to throw me overboard
,” Xavier responds
with a reluctant smile.

“
Evie
?” Cole asks
,
intrigued.

“This will bring on complications that we do
n’t need, Xavier,” Tau continues
, ignoring his last comment.

“Complications th
at I will field,” Xavier replies
calmly.

“Phaedrus said—” Tau begi
n
s
.

“I know what he said,” Xavier cut
s
him off in frustration.

Tau gi
ve
s
Xavier a disapprov
ing look before his eyes shift back to me. I raise my chin as I stare
back at him, feeling acutely uncomfortable in his presence.
“Can we talk?” Tau asks
me gently.

“What would you like to dis
cuss?” I question
, turning on him with thinly veiled hostility in my tone. “My
aspire
—
my forg
otten lover—
m
y soul mate—
or, I know! Let’s talk about my undead stalker! Those are all topics I want to discuss with my long-lost father!”

“We don’t have to discuss anything that makes you uncomfortable. I’d like to just try being in the same room with you…uh, maybe share a meal with you. We don’t have to even talk i
f you don’t wish to…” he trails
off.

“You want to have dinn
er with me?” I ask
. A
confusing rush of guilt and fear mixed with an appalling sense of hope
attacks
me
. Quickly, I try
to swallow past the lum
p in my throat that the hope has
elicited.

“Yes,” he replies, and I get the sense that he i
s studying me.

“Alo
ne? Just the two of us?” I ask
, before glancing at Xavier and seeing his
jaw tense in irritation
.

“Yes,” Tau replies
again, his eyebrow lifting in quite the same way that mine does.

“When?” I ask
.

“Tonight?” Tau counters
.

“But, aren’t we supposed to arrive at the ca
stle by this afternoon?” I inquire
.

“We should arri
ve within the hour,” Tau replies
.

“We
’ll be there that soon?” I
ask
. T
he air suddenly feels
suffocating
and heavy. Adrenaline ripples
through my bloodstream
,
like water
through narrowing channels, making
me feel lightheaded.

I must
look wobbly
because Tau pulls me into his arms and ho
ld
s
me lightly against his chest. “
Close your eyes.” I struggle
to take a deeper breath. “Picture yourself wandering beneath the mo
on’s golden reflection,” he says
in a
gentle voice
as my cheek rests
against his shoulder, “the heady scent of languid flowers in their first blush, carried on a balmy breeze; the elemental feeling of cool, evening sand beneath your feet; and the secret knowled
ge that you are one with it all.
”

A tear slips from
my eye to ro
ll down my cheek while I inhale his scent and fi
nd it to be
so familiar to me—
t
he scent of my home—
of m
y childhood. Slowly, my hands co
me up to lightly touch his back. “You smell li
ke the night to me,” I whisper
as
my arms involuntarily tighten
around him.

“Evening was when I could get the closest to you,” h
e replies
in a soothing voice. “When you were a baby, I could hold you through the dark hours...just you and me.”

“You could?” I ask
.

“You were so gentle and sweet…I was afraid to touch you at first. You were so human then…fragile and tiny.”

“You were afraid of me
?” I ask,
not picking my head up from his shoulder. “Don’t
you meet with the F
allen in Sheol?”

“Yes,” he replies
, “but none of them has
ever stolen my heart nor left me without wor
ds to ponder its loss.” I close my eyes tighter so that I wo
n’t cry. “Will you have d
inner with me tonight?” he asks me again as my arms loosen
on him.

“Okay,” I agree in a voice that i
s barely audible.

“Thank you,” he replies
with a
smile in his tone
.

Letting go of him, I keep my eyes averted from Tau
as I
walk toward the companionway of the ship. “Evie,” Xavier calls
to me. “We need to talk as well.”

I pause for a moment
before I glance
at Xavier.
“You’re eternal, right?” I ask
him in a rhetorical way. “I’m betting that you can wait.”

Ireland

Russell

Long, slantin’ shadows fall
like fence posts over the deep-red, embroidered tapestrie
s linin’
the wall in the hallway. This corridor, with its tall, narrow windows leads to the Archive Room. Knowin’ where everythin’ is in the Gancanagh estate doesn’t make it less creepy; in fact, it might be more so ‘cuz I’m used to seein’ it well maintained and full of activity. Now, shattered glass and broken furniture litter the rooms like a frat house at the end of the term.

Anya rubs
her nose again, tryin’ hard to ease the burn of the sweet, cloyin’ odor of the Gancanagh. If I wasn’t so completely infuriated with her, I’d feel bad for her,
but as things stand, it just mak
e
s
me smile.

“You
should
’ve
sm
elled it before they were evicted
,” I mutter
to her
.
“Naw, come to think of it, you
sh
ould’ve been in the caves with th
em. Now that
was
rank
.”

Anya ignores
my
comment and moves
her hand back to a ready position on her bow.
Sh
e stalks
ahead of me a few pace
s, gettin’
closer to Reed
, Sorin
,
and Elan
at the front of our unit, which is exactly where I want her to be: protected in the center.

I glance
behind us severa
l times
as we mak
e our way down the hall to ensure nothin’ is comin’ at us from behind. In this position, I have a clear view of Anya, and
I plan on keepin’ it until we know
what we’re dealin’ with
here
.

Reed speaks
into his wireless headset
, which sends
his voice echoin’ to t
he earphone
, “A
pproaching the Archive R
oom.”

Preben’s voice responds
in our ears
, “North
Tower’
s clear—
anything interesting in the Archive?”

“We’ll let you know when we
get in,” Reed replies
.

Preben says
som
e
thin’ in A
ngel, which mak
e
s
Zephyr smile.

“What’d he say, Zee?” I ask
, ‘cuz I hate bein’ left out.

Zee shrugs
negligibly. “He called dibs
on any Faerie armor,” he replies
with a twinkle in his
eye
s
. “Faeries are known
for their intricate metalwork
,
e
specially armor and weapons.”

“Does
he know they sing?” I ask
, rememberin’
Red’
s memories of
the weapons in the Archive R
oom singin’
for her
when I used my clone to talk to her in her captivity.

“
Yes—
that is essentially why Preben wants one
,” Zephyr
answers, speakin’
of the tall, silver-haired leader of the Dominion Powers
.

Reed
left the assignment of the other
Dominion
teams to
Preben after
choosin’
ours. Sor
in, Elan
,
and Tycho are the only Powe
r
s
Reed
let accompany
us, ‘cuz I think that he worked with them in China and they earned his trust.

I look
ahead then to the e
normous
, wooden doors encompassin’
the
far
wall
. They’re not merely ostentatious ‘cu
z they almost reach the ceilin’,
they’re also adorned with i
nt
ricately carved dragonheads claw
in’ outward,
like
vicious sentinels frozen i
n the instant before they could surge
forth from their mahogany prison.

Sniffin’ the air, I say in a low tone
, “Hold up, Reed.”

The angels ahead of me halt
, becomin’
still as I creep
forward toward the door
s
.

“What is it?” Reed asks.

I sniff
the air again. “I don’t know…magic
,
I think
,
but the smell is different…ashen and
smoky, like a campfire,” I explain
, tryin’ to find the source of the energy.
“Y’
all got marshma
llows?” I ask
,
over my shoulder
with a slow smile.